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Cuba, Ernest Hemingway's haven for writing literature, fishing for marlin and basking in its tropical weather. Cuba played a key role in Hemingway's life and literature. He spent many days and nights writing famous lines and passages for his well known novels such as Old Man in the Sea, For Whom the Bell Tolls and Islands in the Stream. Born Ernest Miller Hemingway on July 21, 1899, he was the sixth child of Dr. Clarence and Grace Hall Hemingway.
He was named after his maternal grandfather Ernest Hall and his great uncle Miller Hall. His love for Cuba can be linked to his childhood summer home, which surrounded Lake Michigan, where his father taught him the skills of hunting and fishing. (Heritage in Cuba P. 1) Hemingway first touched Cuban soil in route to Key West in 1928 with his second wife Pauline Pfeiffer. Hemingway's attraction to this small island was intense and immediate and there would be many trips to follow. Hemingway would eventually make Cuba one of his many homes. (Baker, 1969, P. 191) His first real visit to Cuba came in 1932 on a planned fishing trip with his old friend Joe Russell, the owner of the famous Sloppy Joes located in Key West. They arrived in Cuba aboard Russell's cabin cruiser, the Anita, for a two week vacation that lasted for over two months. Hemingway settled himself at the Ambos Mundo's Hotel, a place that proved to be an ideal place to complete his novel A Way Youll Never Be.
Even though writing was his first priority, Hemingway's love for the sport of marlin fishing was a constant competitor, the later would be his link to Cuba (P. 228). Ernest Hemingway often modeled his fictional characters after his close friends. Jane Mason, however, was more than just a close friend was; she was his lover and companion. Hemingway portrayed Jane in two of his novels, A Way Youll Never Be and Green Hills of Africa. Hemingway met Mason in Paris and later was reacquainted with her in Cuba.
Jane and her husband, Grant lived in some style at Jaimanitas, just west of Havana (Baker, 1969, P. 228). Grant traveled frequently which gave Jane the freedom to have an affair with Ernest. (Meyers, 1985, P. 244) Jane loved drinking and fishing, two vices that were engaging to Hemingway. Their affair discontinued for a short time during which Pauline and Ernest would travel to Africa and Europe, but resumed promptly after their return in May 1934. (Baker, 1969, P. 246) His bitter break with Jane in April 1936 made him all the more receptive to Martha Gellhorn. Martha would soon become Hemingway's third wife. (P. 256) Hemingway's love for fishing and Cuba's surrounding water inspired him to purchase a custom built cruiser named Pilar, after the patron saint of Zaragoza. (P. 280) Toby Bruce was Hemingway's first mate and another example of a friend being portrayed in a novel. Bruce was the model for the character Santiago in The Old Man In The Sea. Hemingway respected Bruce for his ability as a boat captain and as a marvelous cook; respect for another was a rare for this writer Ernest Hemingway revealed much about himself through his fictional writings.
He also managed to incorporate political awareness with his prose by revealing his experiences in Cuba. His novel To Have and To Have Not was his first example. Hemingway supports the revolution that overthrows the tyrannical Machado regime in Cuba, but also condemns the bloodthirsty revolutionaries. (P. 293) The novel was written over a five- year period and included incidents such as the following. Pauline and Ernest arrived in Havana on August 4, 1933 while the leftist revolution against the Cuban dictator, Gerardo Machado, was rapidly approaching its climax. Hemingway's activity with marlin fishing and living under the protection of the Ambos Mundo's Hotel kept him clear from the street fighting in Cuba. Hemingway was elated when Machado fled Cuba and when Dr.
Carlo Manuel de Cespedes became the new president. (Baker, 1969, P. 245) Cuba's climate and atmosphere inspired Hemingway's literal senses, compelling him to write For Whom the Bell Tolls. This Island was also the ideal spot for having an affair with Martha Gellhorn, who later became his wife. Alcohol played a major role in Hemingway's life. He explained the nights of drinking as a necessary counter force to the daily bouts of writing which left him whipped, wrung out, and empty as a used as a rag. (P. 345, 346) For convenience, Martha Gellhorn purchased a home in Cuba on an old estate called Finca Visit, in the village of San Francisco de Paula, fifteen miles from Havana (P. 346). Martha and Ernest were eventually married after his divorce was final from Pauline in 1940. The couple made close friends with Robert and Jane Joyce and other associates who would later become liaisons on an espionage adventure during World War II.
Ernest Hemingway, together with Robert Joyce and Ellis Briggs, would work together to form a counterintelligence organization in Havana to spy on Nazi sympathizers (Meyers, 1985, P. 367). Hemingway enjoyed his active role in the war without leaving his beloved Cuba. His motives were clear enough: patriotism, pleasure in secret planning, and a love for commanding inside operations, especially if they involved firearms and possible personal danger (Baker, 1968, P. 372). Hemingway equipped the his boat, Pilar to patrol the north coast looking for German submarines and used his home, the Finca as an intermediary for the organization know as the Crook Factory. (p. 373) Even though Ernest Hemingway took these war games as serious business, there is doubt whether the FBI would agree. The Crook Factory put a strain Hemingway's marriage to Martha, one reason was that he recruited his social friends to participate in his organization. His constant goings and comings on sub-hunting errands were often followed by noisy drinking parties at all hours. (P. 375) Martha also believed that Ernest needed to leave Cuba and report the war in Europe.
She believed that he was running from his obligations to the war and would serve useful as an overseas correspondent. Meanwhile, Ernest Hemingway recruited Gustavo Duran, a Spanish soldier in the Civil War and an artist of music and film, to assist him in Cuba. Duran became a naturalized American citizen and was appointed to assist Ernest Hemingway in the Crook Factory. From the beginning Duran was suspected of being a communist; subsequently, the FBI began questioning Duran and Hemingway which lead to the FBI questioning the validity of the Crook Factory. (P. 375 - 376) Only the force of Hemingway's legend and overpowering personality could have convinced the ambassador, despite overwhelming evidence from the FBI, that his spy games had any real value. (P. 375) Along with Marthas constant pushing for him to go overseas and accusations of from the FBI of the Crook Factory, the organization shut down and Hemingway took off for London by way of New York. (P. 387) During the end of the Crook Factory era and the time before arriving in London, his close friends noticed strange signs in his behavior. One was a noticeable increase in his drinking and another was lying or stretching the truth. He also began to enjoy, with increasing pleasure, the way the people of Cuba referred to him as Papa.
The phrase was frequently heard in the Club de Cazadores and in his favorite Cuban bars. He had enjoyed assuming the role as Papa in the past, but this need for subordination with the locals was out of place. Another was his personal hygiene; he began refusing to shave and to take baths. Consequently, he began looking rough and unhealthy (P. 383, 384). Hemingway's marriage to Martha was on the decline when he met Mary Welsh, while he was covering the war in London. She would prove to be his fourth and final wife.
Mary and Ernest settled down to a domestic life in Cuba. His years with Mary would be years of his greatest fame and most radical deterioration, of the Nobel Prize as well as the Mayo Clinic. (Meyers, 1985, P. 418) Hemingway had never received any major literary awards until The Old Man in the Sea; he then won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1953 and 1954 the Nobel Prize for Literature. (Heritage in Cuba, P. 7) His physical health was declining fast, but more importantly his physiological health was creating an increasing problem due to various reasons: Some were the loss of several close friends to death, a severe case of depression and strange and unusual obsessions. This would be a recurrent theme throughout the remainder of his life. In Cuba, Hemingway was acknowledged as a hero. It was commented that Hemingway was recognized wherever he went and people cried out Papa, Papa as if he were king. (Meyers, 1985, P. 511) He had been honored by the Batiste government and had received numerous medals.
He was loyal to the Cuban government and supported Fidel Castro and his new regime. Hemingway was quoted as saying This is a good revolution, an honest revolution. (P. 518) Hemingway had escaped seeing the blood that was spilt during the fighting when Batista fled Cuba in 1958. Luckily, his home had escaped harm; however, he left Cuba for the final time in July of 1960. (P. 519) After several mental breakdowns, two trips to the Mayo Clinic and shock treatments that eventually damaged his memory and put a stop to his writing, he committed suicide on July 2, 1961 (Meyers, 1985, 559, 560). Coincidentally, his father had committed suicide in the exact same way as Hemingway, a single shot to the head.
Hemingway's mental illness was in his genetic makeup and would continue with his offspring. After Hemingway's death, Castro took possession of his home and his boat. Mary was quoted as saying I had a phone call in Ketchum from the Cuban government asking me whether I would consent to donate our home in Cuba as a museum. In exchange I would be allowed to remove all the papers from the Bank and my personal belongings. (P. 566) Hemingway died loving Cuba, so it is appropriate that The Hemingway Museum would be a lasting tribute to this Old Man and His Sea. Katrina Davis XIDS 2100 Cuba Past, Present &# 038; Future Dr. Denis Jorge Berenschot 358
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